Olympic Gems for Facebook Takes Match-3 to New Heights

Playrix, the minds behind the popular Fishdom series, is testing out new territory on Facebook with a new tile-swapping game titled Olympic Gems. The game currently has 18K active users and follows a formula similar to Bejeweled Blitz and Jungle Gems, the goal of this game is to match tiles in sets of three or more to make them disappear, racking up as many points as possible in 90 seconds.

The key to survival is two-fold: matching three tiles over a series of gold tiles (thus, making them disappear) progresses the player to the next from level, as well as collecting and using special bomb powerups strategically. Match four tiles for the standard bomb and five or more tiles for a more powerful bomb. To detonate bombs, simply click on the them and they will eliminate surrounding tiles and will add a few extra seconds to your time. The regular bomb adds +2 seconds and the second bomb (the one with the holes in it) adds +5 seconds to your total time limit.

Once you complete the game, you're given a final score and a ranking -- from slave to king of the gods (and official ruler of Mount Olympus). The real movation is the fact that this match-3 -- like most other Facebook games -- plugs into your network of friends, creating a personal leaderboard to inspire you to tile swap until your eyes cross... or at least until you leave your friends eating your Olympic dust.